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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Capitalism badly needs an overhaul - urgently

Dear Capitalist Money Worshipers,

Communism didn’t work and now capitalism is in dire trouble. In its present form it is a dismal failure.

For it to survive there needs to be a recipe to putaceiling onwealth. It’s absolutely indecent and absurd for anybody to be worth a billion or even more while the majority are starving.

How about this as a remedy? Let’s have a ceiling of 100-million forall capitalists. And once the person’s total assets and income reaches that amount they would be taxed at 90% on all their earnings.

At the moment the rich, the super-rich and the disgustingly rich only think about earning more and more money. And to make sure that not much of it gets distributed to the have-nots, this moneyed lot are so greedy that they do everything in their power to pay as little tax as possible.

American Billionaire Warren Buffett has just revealed that he only paid a measly 17.5% tax on his vast income estimated at 50 billion a year. This was less that half of any of the 20 people in his office whose tax burden averaged 36% with the highest being at 41%.

How just is that?

The biggest problem with the capitalist system is that money talks and as its lawmakers are usually wealthy they look after their own. No wonder, when Buffett was in his true confession mode, he wrote in the New York Timesthat my friends and I have been coddled long enough by abillionaire – friendly Congress.

Of course the peasants, who put the members of Congress into power, could go on scrounging for a crust in the gutter, while the super-rich pig it in their huge mansions and on their yachts.

Isn’t this just a modern version of the feudal system that kept the poor in their place in medieval Europe?

Big hearted Buffett proposed higher taxes for his kind to help bail out the ailing US. Rich from somebody who had been getting away with a pittance for years and could well have been one of the reason's his nation was in such a state. This would not discourage investment, he claimed becausepeople invest to make money and potential taxes have never scared them off.

Not half they haven’t. Where have you been all these years Warren? Why do you think tax havens like Monaco are full of millionaires and billionaires all running away from paying tax in the countries where they made all their loot.

Warren,the knight in golden armour, who was said to be as powerful as the Federal Reserve Bank, then made another rescue bid by coming to the aid of the struggling Bank of America with a $5-billion investment.

But like all good capitalists he’s not doing it for the good of his country or the Bank. Profit is all he thinks about. You know when you’ve got 100-billion, 200-billion or whatever he’s worth you always need more. You never know when you might be caught short.

The deal guarantees him a 6% dividend or $300-million a year when Mr Nobody can only get just over 2% on a 10 year investment and virtually nothing if he puts it in a savings deposit in the bank.

When it looked as though banks would go to the wall in the US and other parts of the capitalist world the governments came to their rescue. And the heads of these failed business immediately reverted back to what they had been doing before – giving themselves enormous, performance bonuses, even though their previous ones were never justified.

Did you hear of any Government anywhere that came to the rescue of a single Little Man who lost his house in the credit crunch?

Of course you didn’t, because that’s the whole point of capitalism, to keep you fat cats licking the cream, while the poor don’t even get milk. And so you can go on being, like reality star Kim Kardashian, who has just had a $10-million wedding.

How many starving mouths could that feed?

Just remember that the poor probably outnumber you by 10 000, 50 000, who knows, to one.

So unless somebody puts a ceiling on wealth they are going to rise up one of these days, like they are doing in Libyaand other parts of the Middle East and take it all from you.

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About Me

I was born in South Africa just before the Boer War whenever that was?
Started life with a golden spoon in my mouth which made eating rather difficult as a result I was under nourished as a child.
Went to a posh school where I only got moved up a class when my old man donated another sight screen for the cricket pitch.
Career prospects were dismal and I was once turned down for a job in the London sewers. "Too highly qualified;"that’s what they said.
I became a journalist when the Police Force wouldn’t have me.
Like most journos I know nothing about everything but I still write about it.
I decided to have my own blog so I wouldn't have to drink with the editor for hours on end to get my stuff published when according to my independent assessment it’s always of great news value.
My religious beliefs are: You only die once so remember, "You can’t be serious and Have Fun."
NEWS FLASH: I've just been appointed the Poor Man's Press Ombudsman by Presidential Decree (Not to be confused with the PRESS COUNCIL OF SOUTH AFRICA'S, SA Press Ombudsman)